PS4417G: Special Topics in Political Psychology Course Description Course Text Course Assessment

PS4417G: Special Topics in Political Psychology

Department of Political Science – Western University, Winter 2020 Wednesday 1:30pm-3:30pm, SSC 4255 Instructor: Dr. Mathieu Turgeon Email: [email protected] Ofﬁce hours: Tuesday from 10am-12pm or by appointment

Course description

The ﬁeld of political psychology is vast and cuts through many subﬁelds of political science. The focus in this course is about how theories of psychology apply to explain people’s political attitudes and behaviours. In particular, the course is about how people receive, process, and use information they receive from their environment, interactions with others, the news media, and political elites to develop, change or maintain their political attitudes and make political decisions. Topics to be explored include candidate evaluation and choice, political knowledge and misinformation, media effects, political polarization, and racial prejudice. Students will also be introduced to basic notions of the experimental design, a requisite to understanding the work produced in political psychology.

Course text

The required text for this course is:

Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (Eds.). 2011. Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press.

Other readings are available electronically through Western Libraries and the course’s OWL site.

Course assessment

Students will be assessed in many different ways, including class participation, reading quizzes, short essays, and a ﬁnal take-home exam.

• Class participation (12%): students will be responsible to sign up for leading class discussion at least three (3) times during the semester. • 3 reading quizzes each worth 6%: I expect students to do all the required readings. To ensure that students keep up with the readings, I will randomly apply four reading quizzes during the semester. Students are required to take a minimum of three of the four quizzes, but can take all four. In that case, the three highest grades will be recorded. • 2 short essays each worth 20%: Students are required to produce two essays of about 1250 words each in response to two prompts. The first prompt will be distributed on February 5 and the second on March 4. The first essay is due in class on March 4 and the second on April 1. Essays are to be printed. No electronic copies will be accepted. No late essay will be accepted. • Final take-home exam (30%): Students will be given a cumulative final take-home exam on April 1 to be turned in by 5pm on April 3. The exam will consist of six short answer questions. Exams are to be printed. No electronic copies will be accepted. No late exam will be accepted. I will be in my office until 5pm on April 3 to receive your exam.

1 Topics and readings

Week #1 (January 8): Course introduction Review of syllabus and class organization.

Week #2 (January 15): Introduction to Political Psychology 1. Krosnick et al. 2010. “The Psychological Underpinnings of Political Behavior” In S. T. Fiske et al., eds., Handbook of Social Psychology. 5th Edition, Wiley. Suggested/Graduate students readings: Sears, D. O. 1987. “Political Psychology.” Annual Review of Psychology 38: 229-58. Simon, Herbert A. 1985. “Human Nature in Politics: The Dialogue of Psychology with Polit- ical Science.” American Political Science Review 79: 293-304.

Week #3 (January 22): Experimental Political Science 1. Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (Eds.). 2011. Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1-3. Suggested/Graduate students readings: Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (Eds.). 2011. Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press. Chapters 4-9.

Week #4 (January 29): Political Decision-Making and Evaluations 1. Redlawsk, David P., and Richard R. Lau. 2013. “Behavioral Decision-Making.” In L. Huddy, D. O. Sears, and J. S. Levy, eds., The Oxford Handbok of Political Psychology. Oxford: Oxford Univeristy Press. 2. Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (Eds.). 2011. Cambridge Hand- book of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 13: “Candidate Impressions and Evaluations.” Suggested/Graduate students readings: Quattrone, George A., and Amos Tversky. 1988. “Contrasting Rational and Psychological Analyses of Political Choice.” American Political Science Review 82: 719-36. Popkin, Samuel L. 1991. The Reasoning Voter, Chapters 1 and 4. University of Chicago Press.

Week #5 (February 5): Online and Memory-Based Information Processing 1. Lodge, Milton. et al. 1989. “An Impression-Driven Model of Candidate Evaluation.” Ameri- can Political Science Review 83:399-419. 2. Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (Eds.). 2011. Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 11: “Conscious and unconscious information processing with implications for experimental political science.” 3. Hayes, Danny and Mathieu Turgeon. 2010. “A Matter of Distinction: Candidate Polarization and Information Processing in election Campaigns.” American Politics Research 38: 165-192. Suggested/Graduate students readings: Wyer and Srull. 1989. “Human Cognition in its Social Context.” Psychological Review 93: 322-359. Kim, Young M. and Kelly Garrett. 2011. “Online and Memory-based: Revisiting the Rela- tionship Between Candidate Evaluation Processing Models.” Political Behavior 34: 345-368.

2 Week #6 (February 12): Heuristics and Cues 1. Tversky, Amos, and Daniel t. Kahneman. 1974. “Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases.” Science 185: 1124-31. 2. Lupia, Arthur. 1994. “Shortcuts versus Encyclopedias: Information and Voting Behavior in California Insurance Reform Elections.” American Political Science Review 88: 63-76. 3. Kuklinski, James. H., Paul J. Quirk, Jennifer Jerit, and Robert F. Rich. 2001. “The Political Environment and Citizen Competence.” American Journal of Political Science, 45: 410-424. Suggested/Graduate students readings: Bullock, John G. 2011. “Elite Inﬂuence on Public Opinion in an Informed Electorate.” Ameri- can Political Science Review 105: 496-515. Dancey, Logan and G. Sheagley. 2013. “Heuristics Behaving Badly: Party Cues and Voter Knowledge.” American Journal of Political Science 57: 312-325.

Week #7 (February 19): Reading week Week #8 (February 26): Motivated Reasoning, Political Knowledge, and Misin- formation 1. Taber, Charles S. and Milton Lodge. 2006. “Motivated Skepticism in the Evaluation of Polit- ical Beliefs.” American Journal of Political Science 50: 755-769. 2. Iyengar, Shanto., and Kyu S. Hahn. 2009. “Red Media, Blue Media: Evidence of Ideological Selectivity in Media Use.” Journal of Communication 59: 19-39. 3. Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (Eds.). 2011. Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 12: “Political Knowl- edge.” 4. Kuklinski, James H., Paul J. Quirk, Jennifer Jerit, David Schwieder, and Robert F. Rich. 2000. “Misinformation and the Currency of citizenship.” Journal of Politics 62: 585-598. Suggested/Graduate students readings: Lord, Charles. G., Lee Ross, and Mark R. Lepper. 1979. “Biased Assimilation and Attitude Polarization: The Effects of Prior Theories on Subsequently Considered Evidence.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37: 2098-2109. Cohen, Geoffrey L., Joshua Aronson, and Claude M. Steele. 2000. “When Beliefs Yield to Ev- idence: Reducing Biased Evaluation by Afﬁrming the Self.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 26: 1151-1164. Taber, Charles S., Damon Cann, and Simona Kucsova. 2009. “The Motivated Processing of Political Arguments.” Political Behavior 31: 137-155.

Week #9 (March 4): Media Effects 1. Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (Eds.). 2011. Cambridge Hand- book of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 14: “Media and Politics.” 2. Nelson, Thomas E., et al. 1997. “Media Framing of a Civil Liberties Conﬂict and Its Effect on Tolerance.” American Political Science Review 91: 567-584. 3. Druckman, James. 2004. “Political Preference Formation: Competition, Deliberation, and the (Ir)relevance of Framing.” American Political Science Review 98: 671-686. Suggested/Graduate students readings: Tversky, Amos, and Daniel Kahneman. 1981. “The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice.” Science 211: 453-58. Chong, Dennis, and James N. Druckman. 2007. “Framing Public Opinion in Competitive Democracies.” American Political Science Review 101: 637-55.

3 Week #10 (March 11): Racial Priming 1. Gilliam Jr., F. D. and S. Iyengar. 2000. “Prime Suspects: The Inﬂuence of Local Television News on the Viewing Public.” American Journal of Political Science 44: 560-573. 2. Tesler, Michael. 2012. “The Spillover of Racialization into Health Care: How President Obama Polarized Public Opinion by Racial Attitudes and Race.” American Journal of Polit- ical Science 56: 690-704. 3. Huber, Gregory A., and John S. Lapinski. 2006. “The ’Race Card’ Revisited: Assessing Racial Priming in Policy Contests.” American Journal of Political Science 50: 421-40.

Suggested/Graduate students readings:

Mendelberg, Tali. 2008. “Racial Priming Revived.” Perspectives on Politics 6: 109-23. Mendelberg, Tali. 2008. “Racial Priming: Issues in Research Design and Interpretation.” Perspectives on Politics 6: 135-40. Huber, Gregory A., and John S. Lapinski. 2008. “Testing the Implicit-Explicit Model of Racialized Political Communication.” Perspectives on Politics 6: 125-34.

Week #11 (March 18): Attitude Development and Strength 1. Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (Eds.). 2011. Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 10: “Attitude change experiments in political science.” 2. Zaller, John and S. Feldman. 1992. “A Simple Theory of the Survey Response: Answering Questions Versus Revealing Preferences.” American Journal of Political Science 36: 579-616. 3. Turgeon, Mathieu. 2009. “’Just Thinking:’ Attitude Development, Public Opinion, and Polit- ical Representation.” Political Behavior 31: 353-378. 4. Miller, J. and D. A. M. Peterson. 2004. “Theoretical and Empirical Implications of Attitude Strength.” Journal of Politics 66: 847-867.

Suggested/Graduate students readings:

Erikson, Robert S. and L. Stoker. 2011. “Caught in the Draft: The Effects of Vietnam Draft Lottery Status on Political Attitudes.” American Political Science Review 105: 221-237. Oliver, J. Eric and T. J. Wood. 2014. “Conspiracy Theories and the Paranoid Style(s) of Mass Opinion.” American Journal of Political Science 58: 952-966.

Week #12 (March 25): Intergroup Relations and Polarization 1. Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (Eds.). 2011. Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 21: “Racial Identity and Experimental Methodology.” 2. Iyengar, Shanto, Gaurav Sood, and Yphtach Lelkes. 2012. “Affect, Not Ideology: A Social Identity Perspective on Polarization.” Public Opinion Quarterly 76: 405-31. 3. Iyengar, Shanto, and Sean J. Westwood. 2015. “Fear and loathing across party lines: New evidence on group polarization.” American Journal of Political Science 59: 690-707.

Suggested/Graduate students readings:

Tajfel, Henri. 1982. “Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations.” Annual Review of Psychology 33: 1-39. White, Ismail K. 2007. “When Race Matters and When It Doesn’t: Racial Group Differences in Response to Racial Cues.” American Political Science Review 101: 339-354.

4 Week #13 (April 1): Race and Racial Prejudice 1. Druckman, J. N., Green, D. P., Kuklinski, J. H., & Lupia, A. (Eds.). 2011. Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science. Cambridge University Press. Chapter 22. 2. Pefﬂey, Mark A. et al. 1997. “Racial Stereotypes and Whites’ Political Views of Blacks in Context of Welfare and Crime.” American Journal of Political Science 41: 30-60. 3. Hutchings, Vincent L., and Nicholas A. Valentino. 2004. “The Centrality of Race in American Politics.” Annual Review of Political Science 7: 383-408.

Suggested/Graduate students readings:

Weber, Christopher R. et al. 2014. “Placing Racial Stereotypes in Context: Social Desirability and the Politics of Racial Hostility.” American Journal of Political Science 58: 63-78. Sen, Maya, and Omar Wasow. 2016. “Race as a Bundle of Sticks: Designs that Estimate Effects of Seemingly Immutable Characteristics.” Annual Review of Political Science 19: 499- 522.

5 APPENDIX TO UNDERGRADUATE COURSE OUTLINES DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Prerequisite checking - the student’s responsibility "Unless you have either the requisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enroll in it, you may be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites."

Essay course requirements With the exception of 1000-level courses, most courses in the Department of Political Science are essay courses. Total written assignments (excluding examinations) will be at least 3,000 words in Politics 1020E, at least 5,000 words in a full course numbered 2000 or above, and at least 2,500 words in a half course numbered 2000 or above.

Use of Personal Response Systems (“Clickers”) "Personal Response Systems ("clickers") may be used in some classes. If clickers are to be used in a class, it is the responsibility of the student to ensure that the device is activated and functional. Students must see their instructor if they have any concerns about whether the clicker is malfunctioning. Students must use only their own clicker. If clicker records are used to compute a portion of the course grade: • the use of somebody else’s clicker in class constitutes a scholastic offence, • the possession of a clicker belonging to another student will be interpreted as an attempt to commit a scholastic offence."

Security and Confidentiality of Student Work (refer to current Western Academic Calendar http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/

"Submitting or Returning Student Assignments, Tests and Exams - All student assignments, tests and exams will be handled in a secure and confidential manner. Particularly in this respect, leaving student work unattended in public areas for pickup is not permitted."

Duplication of work Undergraduate students who submit similar assignments on closely related topics in two different courses must obtain the consent of both instructors prior to the submission of the assignment. If prior approval is not obtained, each instructor reserves the right not to accept the assignment.

Grade adjustments In order to ensure that comparable standards are applied in political science courses, the Department may require instructors to adjust final marks to conform to Departmental guidelines.

Academic Offences "Scholastic offences are taken seriously and students are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a Scholastic Offence, at the following Web site: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf Submission of Course Requirements ESSAYS, ASSIGNMENTS, TAKE-HOME EXAMS MUST BE SUBMITTED ACCORDING TO PROCEDURES SPECIFIED BY YOUR INSTRUCTOR (I.E., IN CLASS, DURING OFFICE HOURS, TA'S OFFICE HOURS) OR UNDER THE INSTRUCTOR'S OFFICE DOOR.

THE MAIN OFFICE DOES NOT DATE-STAMP OR ACCEPT ANY OF THE ABOVE.

Attendance Regulations for Examinations EXAMINATIONS/ATTENDANCE (Sen. Min. Feb.4/49, May 23/58, S.94, S.3538, S.3632, S.04-097) A student is entitled to be examined in courses in which registration is maintained, subject to the following limitations: 1) A student may be debarred from writing the final examination for failure to maintain satisfactory academic standing throughout the year. 2) Any student who, in the opinion of the instructor, is absent too frequently from class or laboratory periods in any course will be reported to the Dean of the Faculty offering the course (after due warning has been given). On the recommendation of the Department concerned, and with the permission of the Dean of that Faculty, the student will be debarred from taking the regular examination in the course. The Dean of the Faculty offering the course will communicate that decision to the Dean of the Faculty of registration.

Medical Policy, Late Assignments, etc. Students registered in Social Science should refer to https://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html for information on Medical Policy, Term Tests, Final Examinations, Late Assignments, Short Absences, Extended Absences, Documentation and other Academic Concerns. Non-Social Science students should refer to their home faculty’s academic counselling office.

University Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct

Plagiarism: Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offence." (see Scholastic Offence Policy in the Western Academic Calendar).

Plagiarism Checking: "All required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to the commercial plagiarism detection software under license to the University for the detection of plagiarism. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between The University of Western Ontario and Turnitin.com (http://www.turnitin.com)."

Multiple-choice tests/exams: "Computer-marked multiple-choice tests and/or exams may be subject to submission for similarity review by software that will check for unusual coincidences in answer patterns that may indicate cheating."

Note: Information excerpted and quoted above are Senate regulations from the Handbook of Scholarship and Academic Policy. https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/academic_policies/index.html PLAGIARISM*

In writing scholarly papers, you must keep firmly in mind the need to avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is the unacknowledged borrowing of another writer's words or ideas. Different forms of writing require different types of acknowledgement. The following rules pertain to the acknowledgements necessary in academic papers.

A. In using another writer's words, you must both place the words in quotation marks and acknowledge that the words are those of another writer.

You are plagiarizing if you use a sequence of words, a sentence or a paragraph taken from other writers without acknowledging them to be theirs. Acknowledgement is indicated either by (1) mentioning the author and work from which the words are borrowed in the text of your paper; or by (2) placing a footnote number at the end of the quotation in your text, and including a correspondingly numbered footnote at the bottom of the page (or in a separate reference section at the end of your essay). This footnote should indicate author, title of the work, place and date of publication, and page number. Method (2) given above is usually preferable for academic essays because it provides the reader with more information about your sources and leaves your text uncluttered with parenthetical and tangential references. In either case words taken from another author must be enclosed in quotation marks or set off from your text by single spacing and indentation in such a way that they cannot be mistaken for your own words. Note that you cannot avoid indicating quotation simply by changing a word or phrase in a sentence or paragraph which is not your own.

B. In adopting other writers' ideas, you must acknowledge that they are theirs.

You are plagiarizing if you adopt, summarize, or paraphrase other writers' trains of argument, ideas or sequences of ideas without acknowledging their authorship according to the method of acknowledgement given in 'A' above. Since the words are your own, they need not be enclosed in quotation marks. Be certain, however, that the words you use are entirely your own; where you must use words or phrases from your source, these should be enclosed in quotation marks, as in 'A' above.

Clearly, it is possible for you to formulate arguments or ideas independently of another writer who has expounded the same ideas, and whom you have not read. Where you got your ideas is the important consideration here. Do not be afraid to present an argument or idea without acknowledgement to another writer, if you have arrived at it entirely independently. Acknowledge it if you have derived it from a source outside your own thinking on the subject.

In short, use of acknowledgements and, when necessary, quotation marks is necessary to distinguish clearly between what is yours and what is not. Since the rules have been explained to you, if you fail to make this distinction your instructor very likely will do so for you, and they will be forced to regard your omission as intentional literary theft. Plagiarism is a serious offence which may result in a student's receiving an 'F' in a course or, in extreme cases in their suspension from the University.

*Reprinted by permission of the Department of History Adopted by the council of the Faculty of Social Science, October, 1970; approved by the Dept. of History August 13, 1991 Accessibility at Western: Please contact [email protected] if you require any information in plain text format, or if any other accommodation can make the course material and/or physical space accessible to you.

SUPPORT SERVICES • The Registrar’s office can be accessed for Student Support Services at www.registrar.uwo.ca • Student Support Services (including the services provided by the USC listed here) can be reached at: https://westernusc.ca/your-services/ • Student Development Services can be reached at: http://sdc.uwo.ca/ • Students who are in emotional/mental distress should refer to Mental Health@Western https://www.uwo.ca/health/ for a complete list of options about how to obtain help.

Procedures for Requesting Academic Consideration

Students who experience an extenuating circumstance (illness, injury, or other extenuating circumstance) sufficiently significant to temporarily render them unable to meet academic requirements may submit a request for academic consideration through the following routes:

Submitting a Self-Reported Absence form provided that the conditions for submission are met; • For medical absences, submitting a Student Medical Certificate (SMC) signed by a licensed medical or mental health practitioner in order to be eligible for Academic Consideration; or • For non-medical absences, submitting appropriate documentation (e.g., obituary, police report, accident report, court order, etc.) to Academic Counselling in their Faculty of registration in order to be eligible for academic consideration. Students are encouraged to contact their Academic Counselling unit to clarify what documentation is appropriate.

Students seeking academic consideration: • are advised to consider carefully the implications of postponing tests or midterm exams or delaying handing in work; • are encouraged to make appropriate decisions based on their specific circumstances, recognizing that minor ailments (upset stomach) or upsets (argument with a friend) are not an appropriate basis for a self-reported absence; • must communicate with their instructors no later than 24 hours after the end of the period covered by either the self-reported absence or SMC, or immediately upon their return following a documented absence.

Academic consideration is not normally intended for students who require academic accommodation based on an ongoing physical or mental illness (recurring or chronic) or an existing disability. These students are expected to seek and arrange reasonable accommodations with Student Accessibility Services (SAS) as soon as possible in accordance with the Policy on Academic

Accommodation for Students with Disability. Students who experience high levels of stress related to academic performance (including completing assignments, taking part in presentations, or writing tests or examinations). These students should access support through Student Health and Wellness and Learning Skills Services in order to deal with this stress in a proactive and constructive manner. Requests for Academic Consideration Using the Self-Reported Absence Form

Students who experience an unexpected illness or injury or an extenuating circumstance (48 hours or less) that is sufficiently severe to temporarily render them unable to meet academic requirements (e.g., attending lectures or labs, writing tests or midterm exams, completing and submitting assignments, participating in presentations) should self- declare using the online Self-Reported Absence portal. This option should be used in situations where the student expects to resume academic responsibilities within 48 hours or less.

The following conditions are in place for self-reporting of medical or extenuating circumstances:

Students will be allowed: • a maximum of two self-reported absences between September and April; • a maximum of one self-reported absence between May and August.

Any absences in excess of the number designated above, regardless of duration, will require students to present a Student Medical Certificate (SMC) no later than two business days after the date specified for resuming responsibilities. • The duration of the excused absence will be for a maximum of 48 hours from the time the Self-Reported Absence form is completed through the online portal, or from 8:30 am the following morning if the form is submitted after 4:30 pm;

• The duration of the excused absence will terminate prior to the end of the 48 hour period should the student undertake significant academic responsibilities (write a test, submit a paper) during that time;

• The duration of an excused absence will terminate at 8:30 am on the day following the last day of classes each semester regardless of how many days of absence have elapsed;

• Self-reported absences will not be allowed for scheduled final examinations; for midterm examinations scheduled during the December examination period;

• Self-reporting may not be used for assessments (e.g. midterm exams, tests, reports, presentations, or essays) worth more than 30% of any given course.

• students must be in touch with their instructors no later than 24 hours after the end of the period covered by the Self-Reported Absence form, to clarify how they will be expected to fulfil the academic expectations they may have missed during the absence.

Request for Academic Consideration for a Medical Absence Students seeking academic consideration for a medical absence not covered by existing Student Accessibility Services (SAS) accommodation, will be required to provide documentation in person to Academic Counselling in their Faculty of registration in the form of a completed, signed Student Medical Certificate (SMC) where the conditions for a Self-Reported Absence have not been met, including where the student has exceeded the maximum number of permissible Self-Reported Absences.

Request for Academic Consideration for a Non-Medical Absence Students seeking academic consideration for a non-medical absence will be required to provide appropriate documentation to Academic Counselling in their Faculty of registration where the conditions for a Self-Reported Absence have not been met, including where the student has exceeded the maximum number of permissible Self- Reported Absences.